Fly-half Gareth Anscombe kicked both conversions, yet the Blues are facing a pool-stage exit despite pushing Saracens hard just six days after suffering a 51-25 defeat against the same opponents at Allianz Park.

Saracens will secure their place in the last-eight if they beat struggling Lyon in France next month, with that game being followed by a home encounter against Glasgow.

McCall added: “There are aspects of our performance we would like to get better at.

“But when it came to it and when it really mattered when we were down to 14 men with 20 minutes to go, I thought we showed all of our experience and managed that part of the game superbly well. We were very composed.”

The Blues could not capitalise on Saracens lock Will Skelton’s spell in the sin-bin, although they gave Saracens far more to think about than during last weekend’s 51-25 defeat at Allianz Park.

Blues head coach John Mulvihill said: “It was two tries-all against a team who normally concede only one try in the Premiership.

“We are in a competition with the 20 best teams in Europe, and out of the budgets we are ranked 20th.

“There is no point worrying about it because we know about the situation. When they have internationals on their bench, it makes their second half performance pretty good.